Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a service we offer sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon's fulfillment centers, and we directly pack, ship, and provide customer service for these products. Something we hope you'll especially enjoy: FBA items qualify for FREE Shipping and .

{"currencyCode":"USD","itemData":[{"priceBreaksMAP":null,"buyingPrice":12.99,"ASIN":"B00000K3LI","isPreorder":0},{"priceBreaksMAP":null,"buyingPrice":4.99,"ASIN":"B000002I97","isPreorder":0},{"priceBreaksMAP":null,"buyingPrice":8.99,"ASIN":"B000002I8Y","isPreorder":0}],"shippingId":"B00000K3LI::r%2FuAnlGMYUFybKEyzYJuq8vbNKrckLorPbKqYcfwbQUpApZ4WlNYwwsBhAZvXo2hLd0ts9I14ze2ir5d745g1eVMDr1wUjqGbRJkw5qFTvM%3D,B000002I97::M%2Bu9%2Foq3Ym4HLMRPHYO07zBV5JdJmR5NC3H0BsBORazXG%2BlmfINLgw0w2cj%2FbJgoBc%2FRjUwW0M2YQKfRddfI87vTLBCIZystdJC0EjTTZAE%3D,B000002I8Y::3L9VCvYaPTfO9ge2%2FNe%2FKYf8afz3MFZUx1ledsE1hrALR6l7J%2F3JUe5PSFODaMa6PlXckkZawgOHqKFd4cR3gEU%2FAWYSRmw6%2BeYH2hZhiEk%3D","sprites":{"addToWishlist":["wl_one","wl_two","wl_three"],"addToCart":["s_addToCart","s_addBothToCart","s_add3ToCart"],"preorder":["s_preorderThis","s_preorderBoth","s_preorderAll3"]},"shippingDetails":{"xz":"same","xy":"same","yz":"same","xyz":"same"},"tags":["x","y","z","w"],"strings":{"addToWishlist":["Add to Wish List","Add both to Wish List","Add all three to Wish List","Add all four to Wish List"],"addToCart":["Add to Cart","Add both to Cart","Add all three to Cart","Add all four to Cart"],"showDetailsDefault":"Show availability and shipping details","shippingError":"An error occurred, please try again","hideDetailsDefault":"Hide availability and shipping details","priceLabel":["Price:","Price for both:","Price for all three:","Price For All Four:"],"preorder":["Pre-order this item","Pre-order both items","Pre-order all three items","Pre-order all four items"]}}

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Amazon.com

You've got to hand it to John Prine. On the first song on this collection of duets, he plunges valiantly into "(We're Not) The Jet Set," singing the part made famous by George Jones, the Caruso of country music. And Prine, never blessed with the most pliant pipes, promptly pancakes a note flatter than Kansas. Aw, heck! The songwriter's songwriter takes a curious turn with his first studio album since 1995's Lost Dogs & Mixed Blessings. Here he's penned only the hysterically coarse title track, opting instead to coo a slew of classic lovin'-and-losin' country tunes with Iris DeMent, Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris, Connie Smith, Trisha Yearwood, Melba Montgomery, Patty Loveless, Fiona Prine, and Dolores Keane. Given Prine's ragged-but-right voice, the effect is something akin to casting a grizzled character actor opposite Katherine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story. And you know what? It'd probably still be a charming (albeit very different) movie, because romantic comedies, like country duets, are all about chemistry, which is something In Spite of Ourselves has in excess. --Steven Stolder

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

I've been a John Prine fan for years, and never considered not buying this CD.After my first couple play-throughs, I still wasn't sure what to think: this wasn't exactly the John Prine I'd been listening to for years. His voice is certainly a little rough around the edges. And this IS a cover album (but is worth the price for the title track alone), which isn't the normal John Prine speed.Then I realized that I never really like Prine for his voice, rather for his heart and his wit. And both are here in spades on this album. This is a GREAT collection of songs, sung by a fabulous man and some truly awesome women. There is more quality lurking in this album than many other artists can muster in a lifetime. I can't think of another performer with the real American soul of John Prine, and here he shows us a side of it that many have never seen before. It is a revelation and a blessing.Buy this CD. After hearing it, you'll never regret it.

Listening to Dolores Keane, the great voice of Ireland, doing her solos and harmonies on "Its A Cheatin' Situation" and "In A Town This Size" is like discovering that there is finally someone who can sing in the slow-motion haunting style that once was soley the property of Pasty Cline. Then along comes Iris Dement's toe-to-toe duets with John, culminating in "In Spite Of Ourselves", in which she does the impossible - she steals the show! Fiona Prine's solo in "Till a Tear Becomes A Rose" makes me daydream of having a woman sing in such a way to me. You can tell she is singing to her husband!...And then there's Lucinda Williams' solo on "Lets Turn Back The Years"! She is worth the price of admission alone! Add to this the solos and harmonies of Trisha Yearwood, Emmylou Harris, Patty Loveless, Connie Smith and Melba Montongomery and you find yourself dazed and amazed at John Prine. This CD fits like a glove and each duet, so sublte and simple, is a homage to the lonliness we have all known, the love we have all longed for, the grand "honky-tonk days" when a few chords and a couple of great voices and uncomplicated lyrics accompanied a cold beer and a few tears. Then, just when we forget its our John Prine that is taking us on this journey, "In Spite Of Ourselves" comes along....and we realize the John we thought we knew is still amongst us!...Touche, ol' buddy....thanks for opening my ears to Iris Dement, Lucinda Williams, Dolores Keane and Fiona Price. Prine singing "country" with "country's best" and an Irish lady reminiscent of Patsy Cline - I'm gonna buy another copy of this CD in case anything happens to the one I have now!...5 stars?...No, how about 9 stars and and five ! for John Prine?....

I was all set to not like this record -- John Prine is hardly the type of singer you'd think anyone could harmonize with (much less for an album of duets), and when I heard "Til A Tear Becomes A Rose" (with wife Fiona Prine) on local public radio, I first thought "clunker." Surprise -- this collection of country standards about relationships is a charmer, and most of Prine's partners -- including Emmylou Harris, Connie Smith, Patty Loveless, Trisha Yearwood, Melba Montgomery, and Lucinda Williams -- find ways to fit their voices with Prine's. Some liasons don't work, most notably with Irish singer Dolores Keane who phrases too straight to fit. Far and away, the best performances are with Iris DeMent; they click on George Jones & Melba Montgomery's "Let's Invite Them Over," the George & Tammy classic "(We're Not) The Jet Set," and the offhandly bawdy title track (the only Prine original). The recording and arrangements are stripped down to show the core of these country gems, and the results are as magnetic as a couple in love that's been together 20 years or more.

I discovered John Prine 25 years ago, while living in Hartsville, Tennessee. I heard Prine "wailin' away" from an open window and I knocked on the door of that house to ask who that singer/song writer might be. Since then, I have spoken of Prine as my favorite singer/song writer ever and as one we should all consider a National Treasure. Of course "In Spite of Ourselves" is great. It's John, is't it? Once again, he epitomizes the "Americana" we are so rapidly losing. There's only one Prine-written song on the album, and you'll know it when you get to it because you'll find yourself laughing out loud, but each song is selected to define who John is. Buy this album. It'll cost you almost nothing and last forever and if you're a fan of the style of music Prine invented, there's no doubt that you should own it. Keep 'em comin' John and thanks for the music buddy.

This is yet more proof of john Prine's gift for staggering, intoxicating impact of the sweet/rough, not quite serious country sound. He alone can enter into a Soho/w.Va low/high range that simmers as honky tonk high art. This voice that post-cancer surgery came out just right in its gruff contrast to those mighty fine females. You just know, just about any smart lady'll sing with John if he asks- dumb ones too. There's just that quality of modesty and those detours where sorrow and music don't otherwise cavort by the moonlight -and not get called names for being so sentimental- just John's magic for a story and a kick and the greatest wise cracks that he's just not held for suspicion. He's a true to your heart guy. This album is so much fun and in its complete lack of message-political intent and /or attempting to mark a newer and improved John, suits me just fine. Iris Dement is a meteor shower just phenomenal in a voice of light particles and Lucinda Williams sounded like a full-forced virtuoso. The music is hilarious, especially, We're not the Jet Set- and the one about Milwaukee. As they say, it's all good. When I listen it's as if he he never left places those southern places I've never been to, only that's where we are and it's home. -